Just before the The Blooding was published Waterstones asked me to write a blog entry for their website explaining how I came up with the idea for Matthew Hawkwood's fifth adventure, which takes place during the American War of Independence and the War of 1812.

It was an opportunity for me to expand not only on how the story came about but also how I approached the knotty problem of Hawkwood's background, a subject which had been occupying my mind for some time. It also gives an insight in to why I chose such a particular setting for the novel: the lakes and forests of the Adirondack Mountains – referred to by the Iroquois as Couxsachrage - ‘The Hunting Grounds’.

You can access the blog by clicking on the image.